Tuesday, August 24, 2010

This week we visited Westminster Presbyterian Church in the middle of their 3rd hosting week. Everything seems to go quite smoothly as the families are enjoying the hospitality. Upon arrival, we met Charlie McDowell who had just driven the families in our van from the Family Promise center. Charlie and his wife Mary Lou McDowell, shown here, were with the families at dinner and settling in to be overnight hosts.

It was great to see the volunteers from St. Stephen's Lutheran making a wonderful dinner for the families. St. Stephen's is one of our support congregations that is located very close to Westminster Presbyterian, so they have partnered to help provide this service to our families. Shown here are volunteers Sally Dudderar, Sue Culley, Lynn Splittorff, and Sharon Potter. Thank you for the wonderful dinner!

Rev. Anne Ledbetter has been a strong supporter of Family Promise (you may recall her testimony from the Cathy Carpenito dedication earlier this year). She is shown here with the McDowells and Theo Krapels (co-coordinator with his wife Janet).

We can't leave without mentioning Jeanne Checkel (pictured here with Theo). Jeanne runs the kitchen at Westminster Presbyterian and made sure everything was cleaned up and ready for the next day of hosting!

We are very appreciative of the support from Westminster Presbyterian to Family Promise. Westminster members have made significant financial contributions, including the Cathy Carpenito Memorial fund, which were used to refurbish and prepare the Family Promise center during our launch phase. Much of the furnishing for the center came from Westminster members. Significantly, Theo Krapels has spent countless hours at the center adding a bathroom in the basement, building a new stairway to the basement, helping us to overcome a significant plumbing challenge, and is now building permanent shelving for our families to store their belongings. Thanks to everyone for your support!